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No. 40 



Ston> of 



Xincoln 



paine publishing Company Dayton, ©bio 



OUR NEW SERIES OF 

Five Cent Classics 

The list comprises Fables and Myths, Biographies, Nature Stories, ana 
Stories of Geography, History and the Industries, as well as selections 
from leading authors and poets. Each booklet contains about 32 pages of 
choice material for Supplementary Reading and Study. 

They are well edited and carefully graded, are printed from new type, 
are splendidly illustrated, and have attractive and durable covers printed in 
colors. They are used by progressive schools throughout the country. 



FIRST GRADE — (Large Type) 

Fables— 

1. Old Fables — ^Esop 

The Fisherman and the Little Fish, 
The Ox and the Frog, The Horse 
and the Donkey, The Man and His 
Goose, The Peacock 

2. Stories from Andersen — I 

The Constant Tin Soldier, The 
Storks, The Toad, The Princess 
and the Pea 

3. Nursery Tales 

Tom Thumb, The Foolish Weather 
Vane, The Little Half Chick, The 
Little Pine Tree 
Nature— 

4. Animal Stories 
History Stories— 

5. Boyhood Stories — I 

Columbus, Washington, etc. 

Geography— 

6. Children of Many Lands — I 

A Queer Little Eskimo 

SECOND GRADE 
Fairy Stories— 

7. Stories from Andersen — II 

The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's 
New Clothes, The Snow Man, Five 
Peas in a Pod 

8. Grimm's Fairy Tales 

The Three Feathers, The Town 
Musician, The Brave Little Tailor, 
The Three Spinners 

Nature — 

9. Bird Stories — I 

Two Dear Neighbors: The Robin 
and Bluebird 

10. Adventures of a Brownie 
Geography— 

11. Children of Many Lands — II 

Ten Little Indians 

History and Biography— 

14. Story of New England 

Religious Persecution, The May- 



flower. Miles Standish and Indian 
Warfare, Story of Priscilla 
15. Boyhood Stories — II 

Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson 
etc. 



THIRD GRADE 



Myths— 

16. Myths 



17. 
18. 



Yesterday — I 
Yesterday — II 



of 

Indian 
Myths of 

Greek 
Stories from Andersen — III 

The Little Match Girl, The Fir 

Tree, The Flax, The Real Princess 

Nature— 

19. Bird Stories — II 

The Sparrow Family 

20. Studies of Plant Life 

Geography— 

21. Children of Many Lands — III 

Kenjiro, the Japanese Boy 

22. Story of Glass 

History and Biography— 

24. The Story of Virginia 

Lost Colony of Roanoke, Virginia 
Dare, Captain John Smith and Po- 
cahontas, First Law-making Body 
in America 

25. Story of Independence — I 

Boston Tea Party, Battles of Lex- 
ington and Concord, Battle of 
Bunker Hill, Washington takes 
Command of Army 

26. Story of Independence — II 

The Declaration of Independence. 
Battle of Long Island, Battle of 
Trenton. Winter at Valley Forge, 
Washington defeats the English 
in the Middle Colonies 

27. Story of Independence — III 

Revolution in the Southern Colon- 
ies closing with Battle of Yorktown 



Art— 

29. 



Story of Landseer 



SCHOOL CLASSIC SERIES 



Story of Lincoln 



By 

Harriet G. Reiter 




PAINE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
DAYTON. OHIO 






-K 



Copyright, 1910, By 
Paine Publishing Company 

STORY OF LINCOLN 



©CI.A259857 




Abraham Lincoln 



The Story of Lincoln 

Nearly three hundred years ago a Dutch ship 
sailed up the river to Jamestown bearing a strange 
cargo. The cargo was twenty negroes, and they were 
sold as slaves to the colonists. This was the way in 
which negro slavery began in this country. 

The buying and selling of men and making them 
serve their masters without pay went on for many 
years. As the United States grew larger this traffic 
in men grew until at last people began to be afraid 
slavery would spread over all the country. 

At first only a few people thought slavery was 
wrong. These talked and wrote about it until more 
and more people joined them in this belief. The 
quarrel grew and grew and waged fiercely between 
the people who believed in slavery and those who 
did not. 

Then at last this country was plunged into a cruel 
war. The Northern people who wished to put an end 
to slavery fought against the Southern people who 
owned the slaves. This Avar lasted several years. 
Many brave men died and many precious lives were 1 
lost that the negro might be free. 

The man who did more than any other to free the 
slaves and keep this country as one nation was 
Abraham Lincoln. As long as this country stands, 
the world will look up to and honor him not only for 
what he did for our country, but because, also, all his 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

life he stood for honor, honest} 7 , uprightness, and 
truth. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in a home of poverty 
and ignorance in Kentucky, February 12, 1809. His 
grandfather had moved over the mountains from Vir- 
ginia when the land was a wilderness. Buffalo 
roamed over the bluegrass fields and cruel savages 
lurked in the forests. White men in their rude dress 
of skins had always to be on the watch against an 
Indian attack. 

The elder Lincoln settled on a farm and began to 
clear the land. One day when he was going to his 
work with his three boys, a shot rang out in the quiet 
woods and he fell dead. One of the boys started to 
run to the nearest fort for help. Another rushed to 
the cabin for a gun. Seizing the rifle, he peeped out 
through a crack and saw an Indian stoop over his 
baby brother. To save him he must kill the savage. 
He aimed at a white ornament on the breast of his 
foe, and fortunately his shot went true, the Indian 
lay dead, and little Thomas was saved. Yes, saved to 
be the father of Abraham Lincoln. 

Little Thomas's mother moved to another county 
and the child grew Tip very ignorant and poor. He 
could not read or write until his wife taught him to 
write his name, and he did this very badly. He was a 
"wandering laboring" boy, honest and sober, and 
finally became a carpenter, but was never a very 
good one. 

He married Nancy Hanks when he was twenty- 
eight and she was twentv-three. There was bear 
meat, venison, and wild turkey at their wedding 



STORY OF LINCOLN 




STORY OF LINCOLN 

feast. Maple sugar hung from a string, and when 
any one wanted a bite he took it. A sheep was cooked 
whole over a pit of coals. Some of the dishes were 
made of gourds. 

Thomas Lincoln took his young wife to a rude little 
cabin with only one room, but he was not so poor, for 
he had a "good feather bed, a loom, and a wheel," to 
say nothing of a cow. But work was scarce tor a car- 
penter, and after a baby came to the little home the 
cabin was too small, so they moved to a farm. There, 
in a rude hut, Abraham Lincoln was born. 

This cabin Thomas Lincoln had built with his ax 
and saw. Its roof was made of thin boards split from 
oak cut in short pieces. Stout poles, laid across and 
fastened securely, held them in place. A great chim- 
ney stood at one end built of small logs laid crosswise 
like a cob house and daubed with mud inside. Iron 
was scarce, so everything had to be put together with 
wooden pegs. The door was hung on wooden hinges 
and a wooden shutter closed the window that had no 
glass in it. This shutter was held in place with raw- 
hide thongs. 

Abraham's chief playmate was his little sister, two 
years older than himself. The lonely forest around 
their home was their playground. We can think of 
little Abe and his sister picking berries in summer 
and gathering nuts in the autumn, making friends 
with the squirrels and birds, or gathering wild 
flowers through the woods. Toys they had hone, for 
there was no money to buy anything. Their father's 
gun kept them in meat, their mother's busy fingers 
spun and wove their clothing. 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

By and by Zacharia Riuey came to the neighbor- 
hood and opened a little school. There were no free 
schools at that time in Kentucky; parents had to pa} r 
for sending their children. Poor as the Lincolns 
were, the mother determined to send Abraham and 
his sister to school to Zachariah Riney. We know 
very little about him except his name, and still less 
about the school. 

The schoolhonses of that time looked much like the 
houses. They were built of round logs and the cracks 
between were chinked with clay. Inside, the bark 




on the logs made the walls; overhead, it was all open 
to the roof. 

The window was covered by greased paper. The 
] >aper let in more light when greased, and did not tear 
so easily. The floor, if the school had one, was made 
of logs split in half and pegged down with the flat 
side up. Long pegs were driven into the wall and 
boards laid across them for desks. The children sat 
on benches with no backs, or else on seats made of 
logs with slanting legs stnck into auger holes. There 
were no maps or blackboards, and very few books. 
The teachers knew but very little more than the 
scholars. 

9 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

About this time the United States was having a 
war with England, and of course little Abe had 
heard his people talking of it. Many years afterward 
he told this story: "I had been fishing one day and 
caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I met 
a soldier in the road, and, having been told that we 
must be good to the soldiers, I gave him my fish." 

When the little lad was seven years old, his father 
decided to move to Indiana. He built a raft and 
loaded his tools and rowed across the river. There 
he selected a home in the unbroken forest and re- 
turned for his family. After crossing the river, all 
they had was loaded on the backs of two borrowed 
horses, and little Abe and his sister trudged away 
behind their parents toward their new home. The 
undergrowth was so thick in the trackless woods that 
the pathway had to be cut with an ax. Three days it 
took to make the journey of only eighteen miles. 

When the family reached the place Thomas Lin- 
coln had chosen, there was no shelter of any kind. 
They set to work at once and cut down young sap- 
lings to build an open-faced camp. This was a sort 
of shed enclosed on three sides, with one side left 
open to the weather. And this poor place, "less snug 
than the winter cave of a bear," was their home for a 
year. 

Little Abe could already swing an ax and was a 
great help to his father in cutting down the under- 
brush and planting the corn and potatoes. After the 
freezing storms of the next winter had passed, the 
Lincolns moved into a new cabin. But this was only 
a little better than the open-faced camp. It had no 

10 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

floor, 110 door, or window. There was not even a skin 
to hang over the hole used for a door. Two poles 
were driven into the logs of the only room, for a bed- 
stead. When Abe wanted to go to bed he had to 
climb up some pegs driven into the wall, to a loit 
where he slept on a bed of leaves. They did not have 
an earthen dish. Their table was set with tin and 
pewter and gourds. 

They tried to raise corn enough tor their bread, 
and also some potatoes, but it was not always easy 
to build a fire without any matches, so the potatoes 
were sometimes eaten raw. Lincoln spoke of this 
time sadl v as ' ' a pretty pinching time. " 

After two years of this hard life, Mrs. Lincoln took 
sick. No doctor was nearer than thirtv-nve miles. 
Mr. Lincoln and his little ones had to look on help- 
lessly while she grew worse and worse. Abe, crying, 
knelt by his dying mother. She put her hand on his 
head and begged him to be good to his sister and 
father, and to worship God. 

Mr. Lincoln cut down a tree and made a rude cottm, 
and poor Nancv Lincoln was buried, without a 
praver on a little knoll in the forest. Some tune 
after, it is said, little Abe induced a traveling 
preacher to hold services over his mother's grave. 

The poor home was indeed desolate without a 
mother, and after a time Mr. Lincoln went back to 
Kentucky and returned with a new mother for his 
children." And now a much happier and pleasanter 
time was in store for the Lincoln children. 

The new mother brought her possessions on a four- 
horse wagon, and the cabin became much more com- 

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12 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

fortable. Thomas was made to lay a floor and hang 
a door. The forlorn, neglected little lad had a feather 
bed to take the place of his leaves in the loft, and 
then there were blankets and quilts and even a pillow 
for his head. 

The children were given a good scrubbing. The 
new mother threw away Abe's old deerskin shirt and 
gave him a new one of linsey-woolsey. A very tender 
love grew up between the lonely little boy and his 
stepmother. Hope and happiness once more came to 
the Lincolns. 

Abe had long since forgotten what he had learned 
at the Kentucky school. He was ten years old and 
could not write, but he could ask questions. He 
perched on the fence by the roadside, and, when a 
traveler came by, would ask questions as long as any 
one would answer, or until his father found him and 
would send him away. 

One day a lady had to wait at the cabin who had 
some books. She read stories to the children from 
them, and these were the first that little Abe had 
heard. Thus a new world was opened to him, and 
from that time his thirst lor knowledge never ceased. 

He afterward wrote of his life at this time: "It 
was a wild region, with many bears and other wild 
animals still in the woods. There T grew up. There 
were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was 
ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', writing 
and cipherin' to the rule of three." 

Whenever a teacher came in the neighborhood, 
Mrs. Lincoln insisted on the children going to school. 
This was sometimes hard, for the father did not 

13 



STORY OF LINCOLN 



believe in schools or education, and wanted the boys 
to help him on the farm. But, every chance he had, 
Abe went to school. One time he had a nine-mile 
walk to and from school, with only a corn-dodger in 
his pocket for a lunch. All day Sunday he. was at his 
books, and Saturday between his chores. 

This made trouble, for his father hated the sight of 
a book, and his mother had to beg for him to be 
allowed to read. He did his sums on a wooden shovel 

with a piece of charcoal, and, 
when the wood was covered 
with figures, scraped them off 
and began again. He covered 
the walls and boards with his 




writing. 



good 



He became such a 
speller that they would not 
have him in the spelling 
matches any more. His writ- 
ing was so good that he became 
the letter-writer for the family 

"He did his sums on a wooden , ,-. . , ■, -, -, ttti 

shovel" and the neighborhood. W hen- 

ever he heard of a book, he went straight away and 
borrowed it, and never stopped until he knew it 
thoroughly from cover to cover. In this way he 
read Pilgrim's Progress, iEsop's Fables, Robinson 
Crusoe, and Weem's Washington. 

He kept a notebook and wrote about things he 
read. "His pen was made of a turkey quill, and the 
ink from the juice of a brier root." It made him 
angry to hear or read anything he could not under- 
stand. He never rested until he found the meaning 



14 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

and was able to give the same thought in his own 
words. 

When he was reading Weem's Washington, he 
stuck the book in a crack of the wall in his loft. A 
rain came up that night and the book was soaked. 
The man who owned it made him pull fodder three 
days to pay for it. But, anyway, the borrowing went 
on until he was sure he had read every book for fifty 
miles around. 

Altogether, Lincoln attended school only about a 
year, and this was snatched a few weeks at a time 
until he was nineteen years old. His father was so 
very poor and needed his help. He was hired out to 
work for the neighbors at twenty-five cents a day, 
and his father got the money. Indeed, Abe did not 
need it, for in the wilderness what would he do with 
pocket money if he had it % 

He had a great gift for story-telling, and some- 
times, mounting a stump in a field, he gathered the 
hands about him and kept them roaring with laugh- 
ter until the enraged farmer appeared. In every 
crossroads store he was welcome because the loafers 
there loved to listen to him, sometimes until after 
midnight. 

He was six feet four inches tall and was very 
strong. Many tales are told of the great feats of 
strength he performed. One man said that when he 
was at work in a clearing you would think six men 
were swinging axes by the way the trees fell. While 
these things are interesting, it is of more worth to 
know that he had a kindly, tender nature. He wrote 

15 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

an essay on cruelty to animals long before there were 
any societies formed to protect our dumb friends. 

When Abe was twenty-one, his father, restless as 
ever, decided to move to Illinois. The household 
goods were loaded on a wagon drawn by an ox-team 
driven by young Abe. They found a place for the 
new home on the bank of the Sangamon River. Abe 
helped clear the land and fence it. He then being 
past twenty-one, his work no longer belonging to his 
father, started in life for himself, his ax over his 
shoulder and all he owned in a little bundle. 

At first he found such odd jobs as he could about 
the neighborhood. One bargain he made was with 
Mrs. Nancy Miller "to split four hundred rails for 
every yard of brown jeans dyed with Avhite walnut 
that would be necessary to make a pair of trousers." 
However, Lincoln never cared much about his dress. 
One person, in writing of him at this time, has said: 
"He wore a scant pair of trousers, hitched by a single 
suspender over his shirt, and so short as to expose, at 
the lower end, half a dozen inches of shinbone, sharp, 
blue, and narrow." 

Several months after leaving home, Denton Qffut 
employed him to take a cargo of hogs, pork, and 
corn down the river to New Orleans. On this trip 
Lincoln saw slavery at its worst. He visited the slave 
market and saw men and women being sold like they 
were cattle. 

Several years after, in again going down the river, 
there were several negroes shackled together with 
irons. Of this he wrote to 'i friend: "That sight was 
a continual torment to me; and T see something like 

16 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

it every time I touch the Ohio or any other slave 
border. It is not fair for you to assume that I have 
no interest in a thing which has and continually exer- 
cises the power of making me miserable." 

After returning from taking the flat boat down the 
river, Mr. Offut started a general store 4 and put Lin- 
coln in charge. But it must be confessed that he was 
not a great success as a storekeeper. He read con- 
tinually. A customer was very apt to find him 
stretched out on the counter studying a grammar he 
had walked six miles to borrow. Perhaps he would 
not be in the store at all, but out in the grass working 
sums on wrapping-paper. 

But he always had time to cut wood tor a poor 
widow or sit up with a sick child. And then he was 
honest. A woman once by mistake overpaid him 
fourpence. She lived several miles away, but Lin- 
coln walked out and paid her the money before Ik 1 
slept that night. Another time he found lie had used 
too small a weight in weighing tea. This mistake 
was also made right at once. 

This was the chief trait of his character always— 
honesty. He was honest in all ways and in all things. 
He was honest in his speech and in his thoughts, as 
well as in his acts. So what better name could be 
found for him than "Honest Abe"? And by this he 
was known to all the country round. 

In less than a year OfTut failed and Lincoln was 
out of employment. The Indians were giving trouble 
and the governor asked for volunteers and Abe en- 
listed. When the time came to choose a captain, 
there were two men for the place, Lincoln and one 

17 



STORY OF LINCOLN 




18 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

other. They stood a short distance apart, and the 
men went over to the one they chose. When they 
were through, Lincoln had three-fourths and the 
other only one-fourth of the men. He afterward 
said that nothing that had ever happened to him gave 
him so much pleasure. 

But Lincoln was not even in any engagement, so 
he did not get any military glory. He was known, 
though, as a good comrade and the best story-teller 
in the camp. At the close of the war he went into 
the grocery business with a partner. Neither had 
any money, so they gave notes for the amounts they 
owed. 

In a barrel of odds and ends Lincoln found an old 
law book. Then, lying on his back on the ground, his 
feet against a tree, swinging around the trunk to 
keep in the shade, he read and read until he had 
mastered the book. This was the turning-point in 
his life; hereafter all spare time was spent in reading- 
law. He walked many miles to borrow his law books 
from a friend, and the tall, poorly-dressed fellow, 
walking along the roads reading, became a familiar 
sight to many. 

But Lincoln had no head for business and his part- 
ner drank, so the store soon "winked out," leaving 
him with a large debt to pay. That is, it was large 
for him, for money was scarce and labor very poorly 
paid. " Honest Abe" went to see all the men he owed 
and told them he would pay them all he could earn 
outside of his living expenses. It took him many 
years, and the debt looked so big to him that he 
always called it "the national debt." 

19 



STORY OP LINCOLN 

Good luck came his way and he was appointed 
postmaster of New Salem. There was not much 
work about this, for newspapers were scarce and 
letters few. It cost six cents to send a letter less than 
thirty miles, and for a long distance, twenty cents or 
more. Lincoln carried the post-office in his hat and 
gave the letters out to the people as he met them. 

At last the post-office also "winked out." He owed 
the Government about sixteen dollars. Several years 
afterward, when he was practicing law in Springfield, 
the Government agent came to him to settle. He 
went to his trunk, took out an old blue sock, and in it 
was the very money he had collected from the people 
of New Salem. Many, many times he had been in 
need and almost want, but he had never touched that 
money. 

After being postmaster he got work at surveying. 
He had to study very hard to fit himself for this 
work, and now when times were getting somewhat 
easy, misfortune again came. His horse and saddle 
and even his surveying instruments were seized for 
debt. But friends, for which he never lacked, came 
to his rescue and his property was returned. 

Lincoln never forgot any one who did him a kind- 
ness. At one time at New Salem a man trusted him 
for his board and lodging. Many years afterward he 
heard that this man was friendless and destitute. He 
made a long journey to a distant part of the State, 
took him from the poorhouse, and placed him in a 
good home 

Lincoln had always taken the greatest interest in 
jiolilics. He believed that if he could become a politi- 

20 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

cal leader he could use his influence to bring good to 
his fellow-men. While he made no secret that he 
wanted badly to hold office, he did not seem to think 
of his own glory, but of the good use he could make 
of his position. 

At last he was successful and was elected to the 
Legislature. After the election he went to a friend, 
Mr. Smoot, and said, "Did you vote for me?" "I 
did," said Smoot. "Then," said Lincoln, "you must 
lend me two hundred dollars." With this money he 
bought a good suit of clothes and rode to the capital 
in a stagecoach. When there, he earned four dollars 
a day, which was as much as he had been able to earn 
before in a week. 

Nothing of much importance took place while he 
was a member of the Legislature except he made a 
protest against slavery. This was a very brave thing 
to do, for at that time men were being murdered, 
mobbed, and driven out of the country for saying 
things against slavery. 

At twenty-eight he was admitted to the bar and 
was now a full-fledged lawyer. He packed all he had 
in a pair of saddle-bags and moved to Springfield. 
He went to order a bed made and found it cost seven- 
teen dollars. This looked like a vast sum to him, and 
the storekeeper, feeling sorry for him, offered to 
share his room over the store with Lincoln. He 
carried up his saddle-bags, and. coming back, smil- 
ingly told his friend that he was moved. 

In those days court was held in different towns. 
The lawyers traveled from town to town, wherever 
court was being held at that time. Sometimes Lin- 

21 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

coin traveled on horseback and sometimes in a buggy. 
Circuit-riding, it was called. From the very begin- 
ning he was the light and life of the court. His wit 
touched everything. There was a crowded court- 
room whenever it was known that Lincoln was to 
argue a case or make a speech. 

He was always careful to ask rather small fees for 
his work, nor would he allow his partner to charge 
much. One time his partner bargained to take a case 
for two hundred and fifty dollars. Much to every 
one's surprise, the case was settled in a few minutes. 
The man cheerfully paid over the money, Mr. Lincoln 
watching. When he went out, Lincoln said, "Lamon, 
that is all wrong. The service is not worth that sum. 
Give him back at least half of it." 

Mr. Lamon insisted that the man himself was satis- 
fied. "That may be," said Lincoln, angrily, "but I 
am not satisfied. This is positively wrong. Go, call 
him back and return half the money at least, or I will 
not receive one cent of it for mv share." Lamon had 
no choice but to do so. 

The judge then thought he would take a hand in 
the argument. "Lincoln, I have been watching you 
and Lamon. You are impoverishing this bar by your 
picayune charges of fees, and the lawyers have 
reason to complain of you. You are now almost as 
poor as Lazarus, and if you don't make people pay 
you more for your services you will die as poor as 
Job's turkey!" 

The lawyers held a mock court that evening and 
tried Lincoln for his "awful crime." He was found 
guilty and sentenced to pay a fine. He did so cheer- 

22 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

fully, and then kept the lawyers in a roar of laughter 
until midnight. 

One time when the lawyers were riding to another 
town they stopped at a trough to water their horses. 
Lincoln was missing. "Where is he?" the men asked. 
"Oh," said the man who had been riding with him, 
,k when I saw him last he had caught two young birds 
which the wind had blown out of their nest, and was 
hunting up the nest to put them back into it/' 

One day when he v r as riding, dressed in his best, 
with a party of ladies and gentlemen, they saw a pig 
caught in the fence and squealing with pain. Lincoln 
s] trang from his horse and went to the poor pig's aid. 
When asked why he did it, he said the misery of the 
brute was more than he could bear. 

In 1842 Lincoln had married a beautiful and witty 
girl named Mary Todd. She said of him that "his 
heart is as large as his arms are long. " She was very 
ambitious, and often boasted that her husband would 
be President of the United States. 

Lincoln continued to take the greatest interest in 
politics; indeed, he often neglected his law practice 
to do so. He wanted badlv to be elected to Congress. 
He wrote to a friend: "If you should' hear any one 
say that Lincoln don't want to go to Congress, I wish 
you, as a personal friend of mine, would tell him you 
have reason to believe he is mistaken. The truth is, 
I would like to go very much." 

At last the time came and he was elected by a very 
large vote. His dearest wish had come true, but he 
did not care for it as much as he thought he would, 

23 



STORY OF LINCOLN 




Mary Todd Lincoln 
From a photograph by Brady when she was the mistress of the White House 

24 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

for he sadly said, "It has not pleased me as much as 
I expected." 

While he served his country in Washington, he 
gained many friends. He had only to tell his first 
story in the lounging-room to be known thereafter as 
the best story-teller in Congress. Here the great 
Congressional Library was a gold mine to him. The 
amused attendants often saw him tie up a bundle of 
books in his bandana handkerchief, hang it on to his 
cane, and stride off to his boarding-house with it over 
his shoulder. He was sent for to make some speeches 
in Massachusetts. The people flocked to hear him, 
and his fame grew. He offered a bill in Congress to 
put an end to slave trade in the District of Columbia, 
but it was defeated. 

At the close of his term he was not elected again, 
and had to go back to practicing law in his dingy 
little office in Springfield. He came home with a 
determination to study. He had seen the lawyers in 
the East and how well educated they were. At forty 
lie was not too old to learn, so lie went about it in the 
same thorough way he did everything. Night after 
night when lie was riding the circuit, while the judge 
and other lawyers Avhose room he shared lay snoring, 
he was reading. He lay with a candle at the head of 
the bed on a chair, his feet hung over the footboard. 

He was called sometimes to the cities to try cases, 
and once he had an offer to go in partnership with a 
great Chicago lawyer. Fortunately he refused this. 
He suffered a great disappointment at one time. He 
was employed to try a great case at Cincinnati. His 
employer got frightened at the last and sent for 

25 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton ignored Lincoln, with 
his ungainly figure and uncouth dress. Lincoln heard 
him say, "Where did that long-armed creature come 
from, and what can he expect to do in this case?" 

He was deeply mortified, but he took the lesson to 
heart. He saw the eastern lawyers were better 
trained. "They w T ill soon be in Illinois," he said, 
"and I am going home to study law. I am as good as 
any of them, and when they get out to Illinois I shall 
be ready for them." Such was his brave spirit 
nothing could crush him. 

The whole country was becoming aroused by the 
slavery question. Nothing else was talked of. Lin- 
coln had never lost his interest, and now he cared for 
nothing else. Everything gave way to that. He ran 
for Congress again, and before the election he 
engaged in some debates with Stephen A. Douglas. 
Douglas was a great politician and a polished, well- 
educated gentleman. 

He was rich and could go to the meeting-places in 
a private car with a band of music. Lincoln was poor 
and had to travel any way he could. Sometimes it 
was in a day-coach, sometimes in the caboose of a 
freight train. But, once at the meeting-place, Doug- 
las had met his match. His arguments were so good 
and his questions so well formed, that Douglas found 
it very hard to answer him. 

Lincoln was defeated, but the speeches that he had 
made were copied all over the United States. He 
had found his true work, and the people began to 
understand what an earnest, true-hearted, and great 
man the humble Illinois lawyer was. 

26 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

He had to go back to his law practice, for he was 
sadly in need of money. ' ' Though I now sink out of 
view and shall be forgotten," he wrote, "I believe I 
have made some marks which will tell for civil lib- 
erty when I am gone." Before this he had said: "I 
know there is a God, and he hates injustice and 
slavery. I see the storm coming. I know his hand is 
in it. If he has a place and work for me, and I think 
he has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth 
is everything." 

When the next election came on, he was called on 
in many States to make speeches. "I have been a 
great man such a mighty little time, ' ' he said, ' ' that 
I am not used to it yet." When people began to talk 
of him as the next President, he said: "What is the 
use of talking of me, while we have such men as 
Seward and Chase ? There is no such good luck for 
me as the Presidency of these United States." Again 
he said humbly, ' ' I must in candor say that I do not 
think myself fit for the Presidency. ' ' 

Lincoln was invited to make a speech in New York. 
He prepared for it by diligent study. When he went 
upon the platform and looked over the great gather- 
ing of well-dressed people, he for the first time felt 
conscious of his own appearance. His coat collar had 
an unpleasant habit of flying out of place when he 
moved his arms, his clothing was wrinkled. But the 
people soon forgot all this in listening to the great 
speech that fell from his lips. When it was seen what 
power he had to influence men, he himself began to 
believe that he was " fit to be President." 

27 



STORY OF LINCOLN 




The Lincoln Farm in Kentucky 
28 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

When the convention met at the great wigwam in 
Chicago to nominate a man for President, it was a 
great surprise to many that Lincoln was chosen. 
They did not realize how he had taken hold of the 
hearts of the people. 

He waited in the newspaper office for news of the 
convention, and when the telegram came telling that 
he was nominated, he read the dispatch aloud. 
"There is a little woman down at our house who will 
like to hear this," Lincoln said. "I'll go down and 
tell her," and he was gone before his friends could 
tell him how glad they were. 

After he had told Mrs. Lincoln, he went upstairs 
and lay down on a couch. He was disturbed when he 
saw in a looking-glass a double image of himself. He 
rose and lay down again, but still he saw the 
second image. They were just alike except one was 
paler. Lincoln believed that it was a sign he would 
have two terms in the Presidency, but would not live 
to finish the second term. ' fc I am sure I shall meet 
with some terrible end," lie said to his partner. 

When the time came for the new President to go to 
Washington, the country was in a great turmoil. The 
Southern States declared they would not stay in the 
Union, but would withdraw and set up a government 
of their own. The great duty that lay before 1 jincoln 
was to keep these States in the Union. 

When he was in Pennsylvania, a plot was dis- 
covered that as he passed through Baltimore he was 
to be mobbed. It was then decided that he should 
take the rest of the journey to Washington secretly. 
When he arrived at the capital, no one knew it, and 

29 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

when the inauguration day came the streets were 
guarded by soldiers; every place was watched lest 
the angry people should kill the new President. 

Lincoln entered upon his work with a heavy heart. 
And well he might, for the black cloud of the Civil 
War was thickly gathering. The next month the 
first gun was fired on Fort Sumpter. 

Both North and South had hoped till now that 
there would be no war. But after the South began at 
Fort Sumpter, the whole country was aroused. Lin- 
coln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers. 
Many more came than were asked for, and the war 
had come in earnest. Nor was the struggle short. 
Many battles were fought; some were lost and some 
were won. Many brave men on both sides gave up 
their lives for a cause they loved. Many mothers lost 
their sons and many families were left fatherless. 

But through all the sorrow and anxiety, Lincoln's 
first thought always was, the Union must be saved at 
any cost. He thought of nothing else, worked only 
for that. At last, when exactly the right time, Sep- 
tember, 1862, came, he issued the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation that the slaves should be freed. 

One great grief came to Mr. Lincoln while he was 
in the White House. His little son, Willie, died. He 
loved his children passionately, and his grief was so 
deep that his friends feared he would neglect the 
great duty he owed to his country. But, as always 
before, he put his own feelings aside, and the work of 
saving the Union went on. 

30 



STORY OF LINCOLN 

When the time of his office drew to a close, it 
seemed doubtful if he would be nominated again. 
Lincoln was too busy with the war to give the matter 
much thought. However, against the wish of many 
enemies, he was nominated and afterward elected. 
When the time came for the second inauguration, the 
war was drawing to an end. But many bitter enemies 
surrounded the President. His life was constantly in 
danger. His friends knew it, but they could never 
make Mr. Lincoln believe it. He thought it was non- 
sense, and their care and watchfulness foolish. 

On April 14, 1865, he planned to go to the theater 
with Mrs. Lincoln. General and Mrs. Grant were to 
go with them, but were called elsewhere. About nine 
o'clock the President and his party entered their box. 
A flag draped the front in his honor. 

In a little while the people heard a shot and saw a 
man leap from the box and run across the stage. 
Abraham Lincoln had been shot and the assassin was 
fleeing for his life. 

The President was carried across the street and in 
the morning he died. He had finished his work. He 
had saved the Union. He had freed the slaves. 



31 



Five Cent Classics 



(Continued) 



FOURTH GRADE 



41. 
42 



Legends— 

30. Norse Legends 

31. Legends of the Rhine 
Nature— 

32. Bird Stories— III 

The Woodpecker Family 

Geography— 

34. Story of Coal 

35. Story of Cotton 

37. Animals of the Hot Belt 

38. Animals of the Cold Belt 
History and Biography— 

39. Story of Washington 

40. Story of Linco? 
Great Inventors — I 

Watt, Stephenson, Fulton 
Great Naval Commanders 
Jones, Perry, Farragut 

Literature— 

43. Studies of the Poets — I 

Longfellow 
Art— 

44. Story of Raphael 

FIFTH GRADES 
Nature— 

45. Bird Stories— IV 

Some Bird Weavers: Orioles and 
Vireos 
Geography — 

46. Children of Many Lands — V 

A Child of the Philippines 

47. Story of Canada 

48. Story of Silk 
History and Biography— 

50. Great Inventors — II 

Morse, Field, F.dison 

51. Great Statesmen 

Clay, Calhoun, Webster 
Literature— 

54. Studies of the Poets — II 
Whittier 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
I 



grade: 

Stories — V 



SIXTH 
Nature— 

57. Bird 

A Charming Group: Indigo Bird, 
Summer Yellowbird, Swallow 

Geography— 

58. Children of Many Lands — VI 

A Little Chinese Girl 

Literature—* 

63. Studies of the Poets — III 

Holmes 

64. Rip Van Winkle 

(Irving) 

65. Legend of Sleepy Hollow 

(Irving) 

66. The Pied Piper of Hamelln 
(Bryant) 

Rab and His Friends 



79. 
Art— 

67. 



Story of Reynolds 



. SEVENTH GRADE 
Literature— 

68. Studies of the Poets — IV 

Lowell 

69. Courtship of Miles Standish 

(Longfellow) 

70. Evangeline 

(Longfellow) 

71. The Great Stone Face 

(Hawthorne) 

72. Snow Bound 

(Whittier) 

73. Selections from the Merchant 

of Venice 

EIGHTH GRADE 
Literature— 

74. Stories of King Arthur 

75. Enoch Arden 

(Tennyson) 

76. Vision of Sir Launfal 

(Lowell) 

77. The Cotter's Saturday Night 

(Burns) 

78. Speeches of Lincoln 

PS PER DOZEN, $5 PER HUNDRED 
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